Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan;
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speak | דַּבֵּר֙ da.Ber | H1696 | perhaps properly · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine singular |
| children | בְּנֵ֣י be.Nei | H1121 | a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct |
| Israel | יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Yis.ra.'El | H3478 | Jisrael · proper noun, a place name |
| say | וְאָמַרְתָּ֖ ve.'a.mar.Ta | H559 | to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular |
| over | עֹבְרִ֥ים 'oe.Rim | H5674 | to cross over · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute |
| Jordan | הַיַּרְדֵּ֖ן hai.yar.Den | H3383 | Jarden · definite article + proper noun, a place name |
| land | אַ֥רְצָה 'Ar.tzah | H776 | the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular construct + directional suffix |
| Canaan | כְּנָֽעַן ke.Na.'an | H3667 | Kenaan · proper noun, a place name |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
the cities which ye shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel--The burden of furnishing those places for the residence and support of the Levitical order was to fall in equitable proportions upon the different tribes (see Num 33:54; Jos 20:7).
And ye shall measure from without the city - two thousand cubits, etc. - Commentators have been much puzzled with the accounts in these two verses. In Num 35:4 the measure is said to be 1,000 cubits from the wall; in Num 35:5 the measure is said to be 2,000 from without the city. It is likely these two measures mean the same thing; at least so it was understood by the Septuagint and Coptic, who have δισχιλιους πηχεις, 2,000 cubits, in the fourth, as well as in the fifth verse; but this reading of the Septuagint and Coptic is not acknowledged by any other of the ancient versions, nor by any of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. We must seek therefore for some other method of reconci…
Read the whole note in the consoleSpeak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... Now, directly: when ye come over Jordan into the land of Canaan; as they quickly would, being now very near it, and of which there was the utmost certainty, since the Lord had promised to bring them over that river, and put them in possession of that land.
Numbers 35:9-34 9. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, 9. Et locutus est Jehova ad Mosen dicendo: 10. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan, 10. Alloquere filios Israel, et dicas eis, Quum transieritis Jordanem in terra Chanaan, 11. Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares. 11. Constituetis vobis urbes: urbes autem refugii erunt vobis, quo fugiet homicida qui percusserit aliquem per errorem. 12. And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregati…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Selection and Appointment of Cities of Refuge for Unpremeditated Manslayers. - Num 35:10, Num 35:11. When the Israelites had come into the land of Canaan, they were to choose towns conveniently situated as cities of refuge, to which the manslayer, who had slain a person (nephesh) by accident (בּשׁגגה: see at Lev 4:2), might flee. הקרה, from קרה, to hit, occurrit, as well as accidit; signifies here to give or make, i.e., to choose something suitable (Dietrich), but not "to build or complete" (Knobel), in the sense of קרה, as the only meaning which this word has is contignare, to join with beams or rafters; and this is obviously unsuitable here. Through these directions, which are repeated and…
Read the whole note in the consoleSix of the Levites’ towns had a special purpose as cities of refuge, places where a person who has accidentally killed someone can flee for safety. This unusual institution illustrates the humanitarian aspect of Hebrew law (see also Deut 4:41-43; 19:1-13; Josh 20). These six Levitical towns provided a safe haven in cases of accidental or involuntary manslaughter (cp. Exod 21:12-14). Just as the forty-eight Levite towns were widely distributed across Israel’s territories, the six cities of refuge were dispersed so they would be widely accessible (see Josh 20:7-8). These designated settlements supplemented the role of the altar as a temporary place of asylum (e.g., 1 Kgs 1:50-53; 2:28-34; cp.…
Read the whole note in the consoleאלף אמה סביב A THOUSAND CUBITS ROUND ABOUT — But afterwards, (v. 5) it says, “two thousand cubits”!? How can that be? They assign two thousand for them (for the Levites) round about their cities, and of these, the innermost thousand serves as the “open space” and the outermost is for fields and vineyards (Sotah 27b).
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
